


Zylas Learns about Kisses

by GhostReaderNat



Category: The Guild Codex: Demonized - Annette Marie
Genre: Fluff, Gen, demon language used, demon learning about the human world, how do tags even work?, these nerds will be the death of me I stg they're too precious
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-13
Updated: 2019-11-13
Packaged: 2021-01-30 08:21:56
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,034
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21425131
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GhostReaderNat/pseuds/GhostReaderNat
Summary: Zylas witnesses a baffling interaction and Robin explains.
Relationships: Robin Page & Zylas et Vh'alyir
Comments: 13
Kudos: 75





	Zylas Learns about Kisses

**Author's Note:**

> Eternal gratitude to the lovely and talented CoffeeCatKasra, who beta'd this fic and provided encouragement <3

Robin groaned. Today was not off to a good start. First, she had awakened to find that her phone was dead. She’d plugged the device into its charger before bed, but for some unknown reason the charger hadn’t been plugged into the wall. Then while getting dressed she’d realized that her favorite sweater had a hole in the seam. And now she’d just opened the refrigerator to discover that they were out of eggs. 

Giving up on the idea of a hot breakfast, Robin instead opened a nearby cabinet in search of cereal. She could feel Zylas watching her intently as she reached for the box, and turned to meet his gaze “What?”

Apparently taking her acknowledgment as a cue to act, he got up and prowled over to her, eyes still focused on her face and tail swishing the way it did when he was intent upon solving a puzzle. Robin wearily sat her box of cereal on the counter. “What’s up?” she tried again. She had intended to hold her ground, but as Zylas stepped into her space, Robin found herself taking a step backwards, which left her back pressed against the refrigerator. Zylas noticed her step back and frowned, but tabled his reprimand about moving sideways for later. For now, he bent down and extended one hand, curling his fingers around the back of her neck and holding her head still. The forefinger of his other hand came up, gently tracing her lips once and Robin stopped breathing for a moment. When he reached the corner of her mouth, the demon inserted his finger and pulled upwards, examining the inside of her lips as well. Now definitely annoyed, Robin grabbed his wrist attempting, to no avail, to wrench his hand away from her mouth and asked “Zylash whot are oo doig??”

He dropped his hands, looking instead into her eyes and said “_Hh’ainun_ cannot heal one another without _vīsh, na_?”

Thrown by this non-sequitur, Robin paused for a moment before answering. “We have doctors and medicine that can help us heal, but those are both slower than magic, why?”

“I saw something” he replied “last night in the city.”

Robin moved to go sit on one of the stools by the breakfast bar; apparently her cereal would have to wait until later. “What’d you see?”

“I was on top of a building,” Zylas began, “and below were two _hh’ainun_,” as he continued Robin could see it all through their connection as clearly as if she’d been there with him. The two humans had been an adult woman and a young child, around three or four years old. As Zylas watched, the child tripped and fell, skinning the palm of one hand slightly as he caught himself. Overwhelmed by this experience, the boy started to cry. His mother knelt down to check his hand and reassured him that he was alright. She cleaned the injury with a wet wipe, then pulled a colorful adhesive from her bag and placed it over the cut on the child’s hand. By this point the boy’s wails had died down to sniffles, his mother’s soothing words and demeanor having their intended effect. She had then placed her lips to the band-aid with, a ‘mwah!’ sound and declared that he was ‘all better.’ To Zylas’ surprise, the child had giggled and agreed with this assessment, then the two had continued on their way. 

“I sensed no _vīsh_, so how did this action heal the injury?” he finished, incredulous.

Robin laughed, glad to finally understand what had prompted such strange behavior from the demon. “She didn’t heal him Zylas, it was a kiss. Here, give me your hand,” she took the appendage before he could comply with the request and placed a soft kiss on his knuckles. “That’s a kiss, see? No healing.”

Zylas was now inspecting the place where she had kissed him with extreme interest, which morphed into disappointment after a few moments of examination. “Nothing happened,” he observed. “Did you do it properly?”

She rolled her eyes at him, trying not to feel galled that a being from another world was doubting her ability to kiss correctly. “Nothing’s _supposed_ to happen, a kiss is a gesture of affection, typically between either couples, or parents and young children, like what you saw.”

Zylas considered this, then said slowly “a gesture of affection… Kisses are for bonding purposes then? Like hugs?”

Robin had attempted to explain hugs a few weeks ago. Travis had arrived one evening to pick up Amalia for an outing and the baffled demon had witnessed the siblings embrace upon meeting. He had initially dismissed the whole thing as “_zh’ūltis_,” upon which Robin had launched into an exceptionally extensive elucidation of human psychology, including such wide-ranging topics as trust building, attachment theory, neurotransmitters, in-group favoritism, and the negative effects of isolation. Zylas had listened with minimal interruptions then, when she had finished, walked out of the apartment, not returning until morning. At the time, Robin had thought he'd written off the whole thing as ridiculous, but apparently he’d at least considered it worth remembering.

Seizing this moment of understanding, she said “Yes! Like hugs, only kisses are generally considered to be more intimate. Someone might hug all of their friends for instance, but only kiss their partner and child, or their best friend.”

“_Hnn_,” he said, and nodded, “I understand now.” He handed Robin the box of cereal she’d abandoned at the beginning of their conversation; apparently they were done now. She got up, poured her cereal and milk into a bowl and brought it back to her stool as Zylas warmed a half dozen brownies in the microwave. 

On his way out of the kitchen he stopped where Robin was seated, took her hand and, imitating her gesture from earlier, gently kissed her knuckles. Surprised, she watched him continue on into the living room, sprawl out on the sofa, and start eating the brownies as though nothing unusual whatsoever had occurred. Maybe it hadn’t.

Robin felt a happy bubble rise in her chest and resumed eating her cereal with a grin on her face. Maybe today would be a good day after all.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you so much for reading to the end! This is my first ever fic, and I'm so excited to share it with you! Please let me know what you think =D


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